It should come as no surprise that if Democrats use the race card to push their health care reform bill down citizens throats, they should have no problem using the “death card”. Even if the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy had done nothing in life, the liberals will certainly make sure he works his ass off in death.

Democrats are hoping that the memory of Sen. Ted Kennedy will revive the Democratic Party’s flagging push for health care reform.

“You’ve heard of ‘win one for the Gipper’? There is going to be an atmosphere of ‘win one for Teddy,'” Ralph G. Neas, the CEO of the liberal National Coalition on Health Care, told ABC News.

Democrats are hoping that Kennedy’s influence in death may be even stronger than it was when he was alive as they push for President Obama’s top domestic priority. Democratic officials hope that invoking Kennedy’s passion for the issue will counter slippage in support for heatlh care reform.

“Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement.

Pelosi’s sentiment was echoed by former vice president Al Gore who served with Kennedy in the Senate.

“Ted would want nothing more than for his colleagues to continue his life’s work and to make real his dream of quality health care for all Americans,” said Gore.

To infuse Kennedy into the health-care debate, Democrats are planning to affix the former senator’s name to the health-care legislation that emerges from Congress.

The idea of naming the legislation for Kennedy has been quietly circulating for months but was given a new push today by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the only person who served with Kennedy for all his 47 years in the Senate.

“In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American,” Byrd said.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Pensions Committee chaired by Kennedy, has been the panel’s point person on health-care reform in Kennedy’s absence. Today Dodd said that he hopes Kennedy’s death will revive a spirit of bipartisanship.

I also wanted to share a clip of the O’Reilly Factor in which Laura Ingram faces offers a debate on the use of the death card:

All of this activity on the Part of the Democrats to invoke sympathy for the health care bill using Ted Kennedy’s has also obscured the fact that the state of Massachusetts is attempting to overturn a law which would determined how Kennedy’s vacant senate seat is filled.

BOSTON -- A Democratic push to appoint a successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy is sparking a political tempest in Massachusetts, infuriating Republicans and dividing Democrats who only five years ago passed a law requiring that voters decide on Senate vacancies.

On a day when members of both parties paid their respects to Mr. Kennedy, a Democratic icon who died this week of brain cancer, Republicans accused Democrats of hypocrisy. In 2004, the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature changed the law to prevent the governor from appointing an interim successor after a U.S. Senate seat becomes vacant. Instead, the new law requires that a special election be held between 145 and 165 days after the position becomes vacant.

At the time, Democratic Sen. John Kerry was running for president and Massachusetts had a Republican governor, Mitt Romney. Proponents of changing the law argued that a gubernatorial appointment was undemocratic and that only voters should decide on a replacement. Democrats also feared Mr. Romney would appoint a Republican.

Now, with Mr. Kennedy dying three years before his term was up, some Massachusetts Democrats are reversing course, calling for Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an interim replacement to hold office until the special election can be held. They now argue the state shouldn’t be without full Senate representation for months, especially with pressing issues such as health care before Congress.

The Massachusetts situation is the latest to erupt over filling vacant U.S. Senate seats, following particularly messy appointments in New York and Illinois.

Dear people of Massachusetts, I am begging you to not allow the reversal of your law governing how a vacant senate seat should be filled. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you should be genuinely troubled by this move to take the decision out of the hands of the people. Remember what happened with Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois who was impeached for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat. Remember the Caroline Kennedy situation in New York state. Caroline was clearly not up to the task (uh, uh, uh) however her inepitude did not stop her from becoming dangerously close to being appointed by Gov. David Paterson.

Image from Contra Obama

Please put your political beliefs aside for a moment and challenge any move by the Massachusetts legislators to take power from your hands. America is a democracy. If the citizens of Massachusetts chose a democrat to succeed Ted Kennedy in the senate, then so be it. At least the voice of the people will be heard. The Illinois and New York examples should serve as a painful reminder that politicians have a penchant for probing beneath the surface of ethics in order to satiate their need for campaign funds. Contact your legislators and say no, storm the capital. Just do it!

By now you have all heard the news that Senator Edward “Ted Kennedy” (D-MA) passed away Tuesday night at the age of 77 due to brain cancer.

The New York Times reported that he was surrounded by family at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port

The New York Times

Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies

August 26, 2009

…The death was announced Wednesday morning in a statement by the Kennedy family.

“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port,” the statement said. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

Mr. Kennedy had been in precarious health since he suffered a seizure in May 2008 at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass. His doctors determined the cause had been a malignant glioma, a brain tumor that often carries a grim prognosis.

As he underwent cancer treatment, Mr. Kennedy was little seen in Washington, appearing most recently at the White House in April as Mr. Obama signed a national service bill that bears the Kennedy name.

While he had been physically absent from the capital, his presence had been deeply felt as Congress weighed the most sweeping revisions to America’s health care system in decades, an effort Mr. Kennedy called “the cause of my life.”

On July 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, which Mr. Kennedy heads, passed health care legislation that he had helped write and that may one day be regarded as the capstone to Mr. Kennedy’s government career…

Young Teddy and his Father Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.

Out of respect for the deceased, I will make an attempt to say this without being too snarky.

Leave it to the liberal lie peddling New York Times, to use the news of Ted Kennedy’s death to “pimp” and garner sympathy for the health care reform bill. Previous to this posting, I believe I have never quoted the New York Times, nor will I again from here on after.

Not only does Ted’s passing represent the end of an era in American and Massachusetts state politics. It also represents the end of an era in the Democratic Party and the final stage of an American dynasty. In the Kennedy family, it was all about the boys. The eldest of the Kennedy brothers, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died in a military plane incident in 1944. John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the 35 President of the United States and was assassinated in 1963. Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy became the United States Attorney General from 1961-1964, and was a U.S. Senator (D-NY) from 1965 until his assassination during his bid for the presidency in 1968. Amidst the tragedy and pain, young Ted Kennedy would be the only footprint of the Kennedy men for nearly four decades.

I do not weep for Ted. He had a comfortable luxury that was not afforded to most Kennedys. He died in bed, surrounded not by bullets, plane wreckage or the ocean but rather peaceful surroundings and family members. Despite the things he was accused of doing and not doing, Ted must have done something right, to recieve such a blessing. I pray that he is at peace and surrounded by long lost family members on another plane, those he has not seen in some time. Perhaps there is a Kennedy football game somewhere in that Hyannis Port in the sky and they are all there Teddy, Jack, Bobby, Kathleen “Kick”, Rose, Jo Jr., JFK Jr…they are all together once again.

However different the Kennedy brothers may have been, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, followed by that of Robert Kennedy in 1968, Ted Kennedy carried with him the unfortunate burden of following in his brothers’ footsteps -like it or not. To do justice to their memory, Ted could not fail. This is especially true of his bid for the White House. Virtually every Democrat was for Kennedy beating the heck out of Jimmy Cater for the 1980 Democratic nomination. All of Ted’s accomplishments and failings meant nothing to my mother. He was a Kennedy and that was all that mattered to her. This was already evident in her defense of him in the Chappaquiddick incident. “He must not give up the fight for the nomination.” mother said. “Chappaquiddick is a bunch of lies. Why can’t they stop bringing it up?”
The media and Jimmy Carter failed to listen to my mother’s advice. Ted Kennedy lost the Democratic nomination to incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Mother was angry thus the beginning of Jimmy Carter mockery. Jimmy and “Billy Bear”, peanuts etc, etc.

A child photo of Sen, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in which he attends the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace with his father Joseph P. Kennedy

It was not until much later that I read about Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident. I concluded for myself that it was not “a bunch of lies” . Ted seemed to be negligent to say the least. My mother still believed the contrary, I gave up on convincing her otherwise. She went to her death praising the Kennedy’s and I will someday go to mine doubting their ethical responsibility to society -particularly women.

There seems to be some sort of societal need to have the Kennedy’s around, perhaps they are America’s royalty. With Ted now stricken with brain cancer, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg failure to gain a New York Senate seat, Americans are finally witnessing the beginning of the end of the Kennedy era. “Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy,” is a recently published biography of Ted Kennedy’s life as told by reporters from the Boston Globe. The publisher is in fact the Boston Globe which is somewhat interesting as the New York Times is looking to sell the publication and cut production. They are currently requesting bids for the paper which was founded in 1872. Again it is all rather intriguing Senator Ted Kennedy is winding down over 40 year career and the Boston Globe in a sense is closing an era as well.

Papers may come and go, but Kennedy’s never really die. Ted is now an ardent supporter of universal health care and an active participant in President Obama’s current health care proposal. The ailing Ted Kennedy supposedly authored the plan which was just released on Tuesday.

The American Spectator

The health care legislation supported by Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Ted Kennedy, has now been officially released after being leaked earlier.

I looked through its 615 pages quickly, for some of the main features of the plan, and here are the highlights:

–A requirement that insurers cover everybody who applies for coverage, regardless of health status or preexisting conditions along with community rating so that everybody gets charged the same price for coverage with some wiggle room when it comes to age (but the rate differential is still capped at 2:1).

–A mandate forcing individuals to purchase health insurance.

— An expansion of Medicaid eligibility, and subsidies to purchase health care on an insurance exchange.

–Instead of a single national exchange, it will provide funding for states to start their own exchanges, called “gateways,” which will offer a public option.

–Measures to reduce costs through the use of information technology and improved preventive care.

While I intend to take some more time to look at the specifics, at first blush, this unsurprisingly is a very liberal proposal. While it promotes itself as the “Affordable Health Choices Act” the reality is much different. It certainly wouldn’t be affordable to taxpayers, and the choices offered would be limited to what would be deemed “qualified plans” by the government

Ted should be sin taxed for those donuts

I have yet not read the full bill in detail. Apparently it is devoid of the more “controversial” topics such as the employer mandate and the public health insurance option. Due to his ongoing illness, Senator Kennedy’s role as chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is being handled by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). That does not make me really comfortable with anything that is taking place. I am not crazy about paying taxing on my health care benefits especially when I am being taxed to death on my purchases. I do not want a system where the government decides who gets care and who does not, especially if that care is considered “preventative”.

We shall see how this develops and how many Democrats Obama can rally to his side. Being a former child on welfare, I am familiar with government health care. It sucks and the doctors spent a lot of time making you feel like a second class citizen. There were no follow up calls or friendly bedside manner. I can recall clearly being shocked that my gynecologist personally called to inform me of the results of my pap smear. That never happened to me until I worked and had my own health insurance.

On a lighter note, please do stop by the Boston Globe for their online Ted Kennedy retrospective series. Love him or hate him, the pictures and video commentary are worth a look. http://www.boston.com/news/specials/kennedy/